Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op

The chief of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday's deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore.

He said the attack was "in retaliation for the continued drone strikes by the US in collaboration with Pakistan on our people".

He also claimed responsibility for two other recent deadly attacks.

Baitullah Mehsud said the attacks would continue "until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans".

Security officials are interrogating at least four suspects captured after the attack, police say.

We will continue our attacks until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans  Pakistan Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud Profile: Baitullah Mehsud

Eighteen people, including two civilians, eight policemen and eight militants, were killed and 95 people were injured during the eight-hour battle to wrest back control of the academy, the interior ministry says.

Pakistan's interior minister earlier identified the Taleban as well as other extremist groups as possible perpetrators, and suggested a foreign state could also be involved.

'Retaliation'

Baitullah Mehsud is the supreme commander of the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan (Movement of Taleban in Pakistan) organisation.

He operates out of a stronghold in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan.

Speaking to the BBC by phone, he also claimed responsibility for two other attacks:

• A suicide attack on a security convoy, also on Monday, near the town of Bannu in North West Frontier Province, which killed seven security personnel
• An attack on the offices of an intelligence agency in Islamabad on 25 March

But he denied responsibility for the bombing of a mosque in north-west Pakistan on 27 March, in which at least 50 people died.

Baitullah Mehsud warned the attacks would continue as long as Pakistan continued "supporting the Americans".

Such attacks are indeed expected to increase in line with the newly announced US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, says the BBC's Barbara Plett in Lahore.

Different Taleban factions in the border region, including Baitullah Mehsud's, have joined forces in readiness to confront the planned American troop increase in Afghanistan, she says.